The present invention relates to a modular insulating upholstery for closed chambers.
The technical sector of the invention is the field of the manufacture of insulating material adapted to walls.
One of the main applications of the invention is the production of upholstery specially designed for heat-insulating the wails of chambers intended for transporting goods such as maritime, road, rail or aircraft wagons or containers.
Indeed, the devices known and produced heretofore are most of the time made "in situ", inside the chamber of the container or inside the volume to be insulated, by assembly of various insulating elements, stiffeners or inserts which need to be adjusted on the spot to the inside dimensions of the chamber, this taking a long time and requiring a highly qualified workmanship. Moreover, once the upholstery has been installed, it is impossible to check whether the elements situated at the back of the visible inner panels have been correctly fitted.
Yet, all the elements are necessary, to obtain an efficient insulation of the upholstery, and if one is missing or incorrectly mounted, it will not give the expected performances, and the goods stored in the chamber in question can then be damaged.
Different devices are also known, which devices are adapted for various other uses, and make it possible to solve this problem of efficiency of insulation which is necessary for the use in question, while eliminating the need for a complex implementation "in situ": these systems are indeed produced from prefabricated, removable, modular panels, such as those described in patent application FR 2 660 060 of Mar. 23, 1990 of the company SART INDUSTRIE, relating to a "thermal chamber designed to work at high temperature, and constituted of non-jointed and removable modular panels, each one comprising an external metal plate provided with a refractory system on its face turned towards the inside of the chamber"; also noted is patent application FR 2 623 172 filed on Nov. 16, 1987 by Mr. K. JAN ALAIN for "wine vats composed of insulating structural composite panels" delivered in kit form and making it particularly possible, according to the inventor, to obtain an advantageous saving on transport and handling costs; in another field of application, there is also noted the patent application EP 90810521 filed on Jul. 11, 1989 by the company WELK ELEKTRA INGENIERIE CORPORATION LIMITED for a "method and device for producing hollow modular panels and the panels thus obtained", essentially used for heat insulation and designed for refrigerator inner liners; finally, there is noted patent EP 82900926 filed on Mar. 24, 1982 by Bureau d'Etudes et de Constructions Industrialis ees SABECI for a "system of storey-type metallic industrialized building, with elements finished in the workshop", comprising sound and heat insulating panellings and various other modular elements enabling all types of building construction.
It is thus obvious that for every particular application and every type of insulation, it is necessary to develop upholstering devices and/or insulating panels corresponding to each one of these applications.
In the field related to closed chambers, such as in particular those intended for transporting goods, which is the main object of the present invention, no modular elements have been known or used until today, since most of the chambers in question are not of absolutely standard dimensions, and are not initially designed to receive such upholstery. Consequently, the methods and devices used heretofore are implemented "in situ", inside the chamber in question, such as indicated hereinabove, and from elements in plate form and stiffeners adapted for the transport of goods, and indeed requiring a good strength and insulation with respect to the outside chamber which is often in metal.
There can be noted in this field the patent of Etablissements DAHER & Cie filed on Jul. 17, 1986 under No. 2 601 752 and relating to an "insulating panel for inside lining of a volume intended for transporting goods"in order to attain the aforesaid objects, namely their positioning inside a chamber and their resistance with respect to the goods and their adaptation to the stresses imposed by use, the panels described in this patent are characterized by the combination of supports constituted by spacer-stiffeners, defining between them intercalated gaps, and receiving metal sheets stretched over kraft paper and plated on a strong continuous flat surface, which latter receives new spacer-stiffeners applied against a second adjacent rigid surface in synthetic resin with interposed air blades, and forming via a metal sheet also stretched over kraft paper, the inner wall of the volume protected by two new stiffeners in contact with the goods.
This does show that such an assembly effected in situ, which requires a superposition of elements to be adapted to the dimensions of the chamber, takes a long time and requires a qualified staff, without any definite guarantee, once the assembly is completed, of the reliability of the insulation, due to the fact that once everything has been mounted, access to the first element deposited against the first surface of the inside chamber to be insulated, is impossible.
The problem arising is therefore to be able to insulate different existing chambers, and in particular chambers intended for transporting goods, by using an insulating modular upholstery which can be fitted by non-specialized staff, very quickly and economically, without any risk of omitting one of the essential elements of the insulation and with the possibility of adapting itself to various types of chambers in ranges of standard dimensions, even approximately of identical values.